2013-06-23 The Fung-Chiu Duo

Found the flyer for this show we attended last summer, realized I never wrote it up for the site. Please note that I am working from memory, for this one…

The Roxy Theater here in town was buying a new grand piano. They did this really cool fundraising thing where you could “buy” a key on the piano, basically making a donation toward the purchase. But you could dedicate the key to whomever you liked, so my Mom did it because her parents were involved in the Roxy (and the Little Theater productions) a long time ago.

Those who ‘bought’ a key were given two tickets to this show, which would be the first public performance on the new piano. Originally my Mom was going to take a friend of hers, but her friend had to bow out, and there was no way my Dad would sit through that much classical piano, so I was offered the seat and away we went.

Billed as ‘Four Hands, One Piano,’ that’s exactly what it was. They are very animated, and technically stunningly great players. Fingers flying, they really pound that piano into submission, yet exert such control. It’s really something to watch.

They were also very open and friendly, talking (during a question period) about their own beginnings in music and its role in their lives. They divulged what each piece meant to them (and why they chose it), and how they painstakingly transcribed entire pieces (by hand) to be able to play them on one piano. This is a crazy amount of work, as you can imagine.

It was a mostly classical affair, with a lot of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, though they also played a piece from West Side Story. My Dad was right, it was a lot of classical piano, and all very, very impressive.

I’m very glad I got to see this performance, it was beautifully done. And I’m sure that, if I had written this right after having seen this performance months ago, I could have told you even more about it! Ah well. I wish this duo every success.